Weekly Newsletter

Sacred Mountains off limits to ‘Hobbit’ Production

The stark cone of Mt Ngauruhoe played a leading role in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, featuring as a smouldering Mt Doom.

Now, only five weeks out from the scheduled start of filming for The Hobbit prequel, local Maori are set to put their foot down and refuse permission for the Oscar-winning director to use the central North Island mountains again. The iwi considered them sacred.

In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins and his entourage journey through the Misty Mountains on their way to confront the dragon Smaug at the Lonely Mountain.

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